Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-09-23
MAKING POSTAL CARDS.
THE PROCESS FROM THE RAGS TO
THE FINISHED CAED.

Feeding Maehines-A New and Quicker
Method.
In pretty ravine back of the hill on which |
the country town of Castleton stands, ten |
miles below Albany, there is a cluster of |
brick buildings, Il tall smo;estack and a small |
brook that tales a seventy foot tumble over |
the rocks Up on the side OF the hill, in the |
highest building, hundreds of tons of rags |
and paper pulp start; at the 10 tom come out |
all the postal cards and registered letter re-
ceipts used in the United States, boxed up |
ready for shipment.
There are five buildings in the ravine,
though four of them are joined together in
the paper mill, and the postal card factory
occupies only low brick strncture, one story
high and three TIMES as long as it is wide. In
one room the postalcards are printed, cut out
from the sheets, put up in twenty five pack
ages and boxed. Next to this is the fireproof
vault, where 20,O0O,N00 or so Of postal cards
are kept on hand.
The space i'll which the postal cards are
made is not fifty feet square The mill has
the usual paper making machinery, with
capacity of SIX tons a day. There are three
washing engines, four heaters and two sets of
rolling machinery. One is used to make a
postal card paper and the other 10 do book
work or any other OF the finer grades of pa
PER making. From four to SIX tons of rags
and "a lot of paper pulp are consumed every
day.
'ihe postal cards are made almost entirely
from rags, though occasionally percentage
of wood pulp is introduced The rags are
l.t Al.
The United States The company OWLS a one
track road that runs from the New York Cen
trul ut Castleton around the hill TO their
mills. They have one engine, a passenger
car and a postal car. No fares or freights are
charged. The train starts whenever the peo-
pie who work at the mills want to go to Cas-
tleton for their mails aud returns whenever
anybody in authority wants 10 come back
1t is only Il little more than half a mile to
walk, but the work lnople do not believe in
walking when they nave a special railroad on
which neither pass not ticket is needed. The
same engine carries away daily one OF two
car loads Of postal caris, which are taken up
| 10 Albany, thence 10 be distributed over the
whole country.
To follow the process of making the postal
cards one has only to climb up to the highest
| building ON the mll, where, in back room,
| u crowd OF girls sort the rags that have Just
| come i'll from the different rag collectors.
| The girls cut off all the buttons take off the
| buckles and sort out the rags. The sorted
rags are placed in a chopping machine which
treats them like sausage meat, and after
maxim. the old dresses and trousers into lit
| tie squares and trian@it-> too small for even
|
| other machine, where The dust is shaken out
of them and they are claaneI. From that ON
| the life OF the rags is IA succession of baths in
| chloride of lime and other bleaching and
cleansing chemicals with occasional visits to
watts and trips through sets of sharp knives
and fine toothed rollers Finally the many
| colored rags come out in nice white mush
that looks like thin -four paste This is
| shaken over wire to get tine water out of it,
and put through few score rollers and a
| glue bath before 1t comes out as postal card
| paper.
At the end of the long rolls that have been
| squeezing it down tnin enough and Tutting
the pale gloss on the lon" sheet of postal card
| paper, several yards wide, is either cut up into
sheets 81 by 3Ji inches or it is rolled up. fonr
postal cards vide, to he put ON the automatic
,.-.-.. tl..t mint r. an, - r,I Eo.l ,lt ,,-; II
trl,, ,. tn,.t !. ,,,staI ,ards W., ,h., ro',',
has t,,,n calardarai !, i tnl,en from, the ,,oi,.,
| mil few feet To TIL. postal card factory In
| a., III, ,,,,,, ,f ,b,, no. tl ,.,l fa,,-,,., =
,lo7on ,,,., tp-o 5c,a,, .,irIs a l,,., ,,a,,,,b N
press, boxes, large tables and web OF gear.
ing and belts overhead The sheets are taken
to the pres, where two feeders feed forty tive
| sheets a minute 7tj0 poStal cards every
.,xt,- s.copds Tho nostai c.rds .,a ori,,t.J
-, st,,I ,,I,to, 60 no., ,h,+ +Ia,.,, ,,t =,
e,a =, a. faa,o,,, ,I,a+ ,.;n -, -,
g., r. ,,., ts-'-..-.
90 H., -, ,,,a. .,,., -, -
n,al,e tta i,,,,r,.ssio,,s ON tho two sI,,.,s ar.
wadred in thu. b.,i of the pr4ss The plsta.
| come from W,sbiupton and last two vo.r,
without renewal
The sheets of postal cards are carried from
the press few feet TO the feeders. who ar,
women with Iang experience at their work
They are paid forty-onc and half cent,
per 10000, and can feed from 5O0, 900 to 600,
900 a day. The sheets as they come to tn,
feeders have previously been cut into Ions
slirs one card wide and ten hong The wome,
feed them through another cutter that turn
them out separate cards Three girls take TIN
cards from one feeder, one girl counts then
to see that twenty-five are in one package
and the other two put paper binders aroun,
the packages. In Il press feeder feed
double, or two sheets at a time, and can fee,
four sheets at a time
After leaving the girls at the feeding ma
| chimes the postal cards are in bundles read
for sale, just as they look in country post
office But before shipment they are boxed